Witherspoon has a nose for movies

HOLLYWOOD - After winning an Oscar for her portrayal of country music legend June Carter Cash in 2005's "Walk the Line," actress Reese Witherspoon was looking for other ways to challenge herself. So the petite performer turned her sights to producing. She already had some producing experience with the 2003 sequel to "Legally Blonde." Now she's tackled her first independent feature, "Penelope," a fairy tale about a girl cursed with a pig's snout instead of a nose. (See Gary Thompson's review, Page 50.)

Witherspoon, 31, got the script about three years ago from her producing partner, Jennifer Simpson. Simpson had read the screenplay by TV writer Leslie Caveny ("Everybody Loves Raymond") and passed it along to Witherspoon, thinking she might want to develop it as a starring vehicle for herself. Witherspoon considered tackling the title role but had too many commitments and decided to cast someone else while producing through her company, Type A Films.

That "someone else" turned out to be indie darling Christina Ricci, whom Witherspoon has known for years.

"We grew up auditioning together," recalls Witherspoon, adding that the two would commiserate after losing roles to other actresses.

Witherspoon initially worried that Ricci might balk at wearing an unflattering prosthetic snout for most of the movie, but she was delighted with Ricci's enthusiastic response.

"She just came in and she was so excited about it. She said, 'I want to wear the pig nose,' " recalls Witherspoon with a laugh. "And she looks so darn cute with it."

As Penelope, Ricci is the only child of a wealthy London couple. Though she is smart and musically gifted, she has the misfortune of having a pig's snout - the result of a curse placed on her family a century earlier. Only if she finds true love can the curse be lifted.

Penelope's parents (Richard E. Grant, Catherine O'Hara) fear her appearance will scare away any would-be suitors. Hoping to boost their daughter's chances of attracting a beau, they offer a huge dowry and invite well-to-do prospects to visit their estate. The offer draws the attention of Max ("Atonement's" James McAvoy), a down-on-his luck gambler who passes himself off as an aristocrat in hopes of getting his hands on Penelope's dowry. But his crafty plan is upended when he meets Penelope and discovers that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.